Your experience meeting boxers/boxing personnel (good and bad)

Yes proper legend, met Herol at Don Charles old gym around 2012, he was still in good nick. Randomly he was training with (not sparring), Mark Prince (who I previously forgot to mention, another top guy). Both really decent guys, top the time to sit down and chat.

 

Met Lee Selby and Ricky Burns who were sound and then other end of the spectrum met Chisora and he was a tosser

 

Met a few local boxers in my local area in Huddersfield. Chris Aston is a top man, his son Tyrone Nurse is a good lad too. Dale Robinson was a bit of mess when I've met him and bit of a Billy big bollcoks despite the fact he's about 4ft.

Met Johnny Fisher through a friend and he's a really nice lad too, haven't met the dad.

 

Many moons back a 2-0 Henry Akinwande, Gary Mason when he was making a comeback a few years after the Lewis defeat, Julias Francis before his second fight with Danny Williams and Tom Dallas prior to his final fight against Dave Allen. Last top level guy was Fabio Wardley back in 2020 just after he’d beaten Simon Vallily for the English title. Mark Tibbs asked if I’d be interested in doing some rounds with Johnny Fisher in Dagenham a few months later prior to his pro debut but that never happened. Off the top of my head, also been lucky enough to have been around the gym with big name heavyweights Witherspoon, Briggs, Haye, Joyce, Dubois and Chisora.

 

Met Johnny Nelson in Germany for the Paul smith v Abraham fight, nice guy and happy to talk boxing. Met Miguel Cotto at a Pacquio fight in Macau, asked him for a photo but he just walked away, got the feeling he didn't want to draw attention to himself as there were quite a few people around.

Met Roger Mayweather in Vegas, got a photo with him and my girlfriend at the time took the photo, i told him she 'didn't know **** about boxing' and he laughed. Met Riddick Bowe in Vegas too, he was absolutely huge but definitely a bit punchy.

 

Great story about Nigel Benn. My favourite boxer. Pity about his son.

Is your old work place that Joshua came into the Jag factory by any chance? I know a few lads from there and they said Joshua came in as he was sponsored by them and was picking up a car and they described some of the blokes there reacting like you said.

 

Yes, there are photos to prove haha. He was a Benn man, didn’t like Eubank’s flashiness I think.

Yes it was there. I think it was in the build up to the Miller fight before he got busted.

 

Haha, I know. He must love telling people about it. Sure there’s documentaries about him, had a good career. Think he could have been better had he lived the life, but just went on the road. Still fought, likes of Haye, Calzaghe etc. Know he was a sparring partner for Tyson too, me mum said he followed her home one night thinking she was her older sister when she was too young, when she said she wasn’t her, he still said can he would take her out instead or something haha. Again, he must be sound if me arl fella had time for him.

 

Did a few sessions at John Murray’s and loads at Shinebayar Sukhbaatar’s gym and won against the latter in a point scoring spar, never did a proper spar with either though.

 

What did he do?

 

I was doing some work one day when this shadow behind me suddenly blotted out the sun. I turned round and there was Frank Bruno, We shook hands and he said, "What are you doing here if you don't mind me asking?" Like I was going to tell him to mind his own. Then a researcher came over to us, said there was some fruit on the table and asked Frank if he would like a banana. My immediate thought was,"So much as smile here and you'll wake up in about three weeks time." We spoke for a few minutes but he was a bit reserved and didn't really want to talk boxing, which is fair enough - a lot of famous people don't walk to talk about their work on their day off.

Another time, in another job, I was asked to go up to someone who looked familiar. He had a sort of 'yes it is me' look on his face although he wasn't making it obvious. Because he was on the phone I didn't approach him and a few minutes later i thought "Sheeeeeeet. That was Nigel Benn." At the same place I saw Bellew. I was busy so I didn't get close but fair play, he was happy having photos with a load of young lads from a boxing club and had time for them all even though he was off duty.

 

I’m from America and went to England my only time in the early 1990s and met the following:

Johnny Nelson and Brendan Ingle: The only boxing show I could get to while I was there was in Hull. Ingle had a fighter on the card. Long story short, after the fights I was hanging around and met Ingle and Nelson, who wasn’t on the card but came with Ingle (he wasn’t a big name yet). They couldn’t have been nicer. Chatted boxing with them and got my picture taken with them (photo is long lost, alas). EDIT to add: I believe the boxer Ingle had on the card, after looking it up on boxrec, was Wayne Windle, who was DQ’d in a bout for the Central Area title when he hit his opponent when the man was down.

Paul Hodkinson: Went to Liverpool with the girl I was dating (she was studying in Manchester for a semester, so I went over to visit her) and before we took the ‘Beatles Tour’ that we came for we had time for lunch. Found a spot and in the same shopping center there was a men’s clothier. Had a sign out front that Hoko, who had recently won the featherweight title, was going to be there at 1 o’clock to meet and greet, sign autographs, etc. Well it was like 12:30 when we finished eating and our tour was starting at 1. As we walked by it, up walks Hoko with his WBC green belt. I said hi, told him I was a big boxing fan from America and wished I could be around to be at his appearance. He talked the manager into letting us in and got a photo with him, got to hold his belt and check it out and talked for a few minutes about his fight to win the title. He was as friendly as could be.

Brian Hughes: I wanted to go to a gym and did some research and found out that Collyhurst and Mosten Boxing Club was in the area (knew nothing about it) so I took a bus to that part of town and walked around until I found it. It was above a co-op grocer or something like that. Brian welcomed me and I went to the gym like three or maybe four times. Met several of the fighters including Pat Barrett (I think he was European champ at the time), Wayne Rigby and Craig Dermoddy. They allowed me to work out and hang around the guys. Brian and I really hit it off and a couple years later he sent a heavyweight named Mark Levy to live and train with me for a few months — sadly he injured his knee early in his stay or he would have been able to have an amateur fight or two with us; was able to arrange for him to get knee surgery after the injury and he was limited but able to work out some and we worked some weights to beef him up a bit and was able to teach him a few things. We stayed in touch for a while before falling out of touch.

So my experiences meeting fighters (and trainers) in the UK was 100% positive. Everyone was nice and gracious with their time.

 

Seen a few over the years but not to talk too. Saw Lennox Lewis with his Mum in Brum, Stood behind Chris Eubank & Seb Coe as they were having a photo taken at a sports show. Carl Williams walked past a sports shop I was in & into the pub next door when he was here fighting Bruno.

 

Flew over to Belfast for the Carl Frampton v Luke Jackson fight at Windsor Park. The weigh in the day before was at the Europa Hotel and we turned up early so ended up talking with Tyson Fury & Ben Davison in the lobby area. Fury was sound, as were his brothers. John Fury was jumping around at the weigh when Wilder turned up. This was the same weekend that Billy Joe Saunders threw a chicken at Deontay Wilder in Nandos as they were announcing Fury v Wilder that weekend. Also bumped into a few others… Sean McComb, Martin Murray Rocky Fielding, Jamie Moore.

Met Joe Calzaghe, Enzo Mac, Chisora, Cleverly, Frank Warren, Don Charles (top guy) & Wayne Alexander all at a Wembley arena show. Cleverly was headlining against Krasniqi and it was the fight before he got taken apart by Kovalev , Chisora was coming back from the Haye knockout and Scott Harrison was fighting Liam Walsh.

The night Ricky Hatton had his comeback fight with Senchenko I met Paulie Malignaggi, Barry McGuigan, Ryan Rhodes and Matt Macklin. For a small guy, Mcguigan had hands like shovels and Macklin is a bigger bloke than you think. Rhodes was sound. Also met Jazza Dickens who was starting out his pro career and fought after the main event had finished.

Spike O’Sullivan and Romeo Romaeo (remember him!) at the Billy Joe Saunders v Eubank fight.

Hughie Fury at a copperbox event were Tyson was fighting Joey Abell.

Anthony Crolla, Eddie Hearn, Paddy Fitzpatrick, Scott Cardle, Adam Booth, Barry Hearn & Ricky Burns at Froch Groves 1 in Manchester.

Went to see Kevin Mitchell fight at the Excel when it was being headlined by Purdy v Bundu, most of the fighters were staying at the Crown Plaza… met Oliver Harrison (RIP) who was trying to give me sandwiches before diving into a lift lol , Jamie McDonnell who was on the undercard as well. Nice guy.

Jamie Moore in an Irish bar in Tenerife, top bloke.

Oscar De La Hoya & Johnny Nelson the night Crolla fought Linares. Lawrence okolie was also making his debut that night and starched his opponent in no more than 20-30 seconds.

Froch & Groves during there UK tour. That was a good night.

All of the smith brothers with exception to Callum. Seen Liam outside the emirates (Liverpool were playing Arsenal) and he had a cut in the middle of his forehead…. This was in the lead up to the Canelo fight and it was this cut that meant he couldn’t get much sparring in for that fight. Seen people asking him for a photo but he had to politely refuse as he didn’t want the cut to be leaked.